


Carbon Copy

by arcticgold



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adoption, Clint Feels, Deaf Clint Barton, Fix-It, Fluff, M/M, Miscommunication, Parent Fic, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-08
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-08 06:20:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4294026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arcticgold/pseuds/arcticgold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>written to the prompt: </p>
<p>"It’s the near future and it’s now more affordable/socially acceptable to bio-engineer your own children (ie, deselect the genes more prone to this or that disease, nudge the more preferred genes from your code to be selected). Phil and Clint go to their consultation but end up fighting because every question they are asked (And whose nose should the baby have? If we could nudge temperament or intelligence of the child to one of you, which would it be? etc) Clint ALWAYS says Phil and they are making a baby TOGETHER Clint not a Phil clone. Phil wants to be able to look at their baby and see hints of Clint too after all but Clint is horrified at that notion and needs to be convinced."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carbon Copy

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a short little thing meant to keep me busy and get me back in the swing of writing, so just enjoy some self-indulgent parent planning!

It’s not that Phil thought the process of hand-picking their child’s traits would be easy. He didn’t really; he’s well acquainted with the level of stubbornness Barton and he both possess. He just didn’t think it’d be this frustrating. It’s a biological miracle that they’re able to have a child chiefly of their own genes at all, let alone that they’d be able to push more favorable traits in the place of others. It’s a scientific breakthrough that’s slowly gained ground, becoming one of the top new trends in families of all shapes and sizes, and especially for couples unable to conceive conventionally.

            Clint and Phil debated for years the decision to bring a child into this world, especially considering their professional lives. However, love ended up conquering all or something like that, because two weeks ago they walked into a preliminary meeting at the top fertilization clinic in New York.

            The process started off smooth enough to begin with—

            “Preferred sex of child?” “Unbiased.”

            “Any hereditary diseases we should look out for?” “None.”

            “Surname for the birth certificate?” “Coulson.” (They’d talked about this beforehand—though he wasn’t happy about it, Clint had been right when he pointed out that Coulson’s name was less common in the press, held less weight, and had fewer enemies. At the end of the day, it’d be safer for their child to have his name than Clint’s.)  

            The process became complicated on their third visit, when the questions started to focus on the child’s traits.

            Their consultant was nice enough, had an air of no-nonsense professionalism about her that Phil appreciated. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun, but the efforts of the day had pulled a couple of baby hairs loose. She had a kind smile, though it was clearly a perfected performance piece; a part of the job. Her nametag, fastened on the dark grey lapel of her blazer, read “Betty”.

            “It’s time to move on the real decision making part of this process. We’ll start out with the basic, appearance based questions. They tend to be easier for couples to agree on. First off, whose eyes would we like the baby to share?”

            Phil said “Clint’s” the same time he heard Clint say “Phil’s.” Phil turned a disbelieving look on his husband. “Why on earth would we give the baby my eyes, Clint?” he said, with a pointed look, attempting to convey the thought ‘they call you Hawk _eye_ for a reason, idiot’, without actually saying the words out loud.

Clint just gave a half-shrug and replied, “I love your eyes.”

            Phil turned back to Betty and said “Put down Clint for eyes,” in the tone he had begun to use more and more when cleaning up the Avengers’ messes, conveying ‘these guys, right? Good thing between us we can get the right thing done’ without actually saying as much. It was basically infallible. Betty just flashed him her kind smile and made a few marks on the paper.

            “Okay, up next would be ears. Preference?”

            Before Betty even finished the question, Clint spoke up. “Phil’s,” he said quickly, smiling apologetically when Betty startled. He pointed at his hearing aid, the looked at Phil as if to dare him to argue the choice. Which, really. Clint’s deafness was hardly considered a disability by anyone who knew him. It was just another part of him, another piece of the package that Phil loved so much. He’d learned ASL without a second thought, and the two of them just added it to the retinue of languages they could switch back and forth between when communicating. Phil had been close to voting for Clint’s ears anyway, because Phil’d never really been a fan of his own, always thought they stuck out a bit, but. Being deaf as a child had made Clint feel isolated a lot, especially when he’d been in the system, where you weren’t expected to stick around long enough to be bothered to learn to communicate, and it made sense to Phil why he’d not want to pass that on. Not that they’d be anything but accepting and loving regardless to their kid, but he got it. He really did. So, Phil just signed _I’m teaching him sign language anyways_ , and then nodded at Betty to continue.

            The next twenty minutes passed in this fashion, and Phil grew more and more irritated. He tried to just forget it, because it makes sense that, being so in love with each other as they are, both he and Clint would want to see each other’s traits in the child. Still, he’d hoped they’d be able to agree more easily than they had been. Betty’s voice cut into his thinking, and Phil looked up her perfectly manicured fingers placed her pen down and started shuffling papers around on her desk.

            “Well boys, we’re nearing the end of our session today. There are quite a few more features that you’re given the option to preference, but most parents like to leave at least some of them up to chance anyways. We do offer for you to take home the forms and work your way through each option individually, and I’d encourage you to do so. I’ll see you again this time next week, when we’ll start in on the mental trait preferences. This tends to be more difficult for parents to decide on, so I encourage the two of you to discuss your options beforehand to make the process easier on you all. Remember, you can always choose to leave it up to chance as well.” Betty stood, handing Phil a manila folder with a stack of papers inside, shaking his other hand once he took it. “Have a good evening, I’ll see you in a week!” She smiled at them one last time, as Clint led the way out of her office.

            Phil let out a soft sigh. That had been one of the most exhausting thirty minutes of his life, and he was a goddamn shield agent, his whole life was exhausting. Clint couldn’t have heard the sigh, with how quiet it had been and the fact that Phil was still behind him, but he still reached his hand back and held it out for Phil to grab hold of. He did so, speeding up a fraction in order to fall in next to Clint, and gave him a soft smile. This process was difficult, sure, but it would be worth it to have a family with the man he loves more than anything in the world.

———

            The week passed quickly. Phil and Clint were both very busy men, and it was difficult for them to find quiet time together. When they did manage it, Clint would effectively brush off any attempt to talk about the upcoming appointment. Therefore, when said appointment rolled around, the manila folder remained untouched where Phil had set it down a week ago and they were on completely different pages when it came time to answer Betty’s questions.

            Today, the woman wore a dark blue pencil skirt and blazer combo, the latter being discarded on the back of her chair as she let them into her office. Her hair was in her customary bun, and she was wearing her typical smile on her face as they sat down.

            “Okay!” She started, “It’s time to get down to the nitty gritty. The idea of controlling some of this stuff tends to throw parents off a little, so I’m going to start by telling you what I tell every couple when we get to this part: don’t think too hard about it. Your child will be loved and cherished no matter how they end up, so don’t think you’ll doom your child if you make the wrong choice, because there is no wrong choice here. On that note, are you ready to get started?”

 Phil heard Clint take a deep breath, and turned to look at him. They both nodded, in response to Betty’s question, but maintained eye contact for a moment longer. God, did Phil love this man. When he turned back to Betty, her smiled seemed a bit kinder, perhaps a bit more real than it had been before. Her gaze flickered back and forth between them both before she looked down at her papers and began to speak.

            “Alright, first up is temperament. This includes things like introversion vs extroversion, personality types, regularity in actions. Do you have a preference as to whose we lean towards?” Betty asked.

            As Phil had almost begun to expect at this point, Clint spoke up immediately. “Phil,” he said. Phil must have let some of his annoyance slip through onto his face, because Betty paused and gave them both a searching look before she continued.

            “Okay then. Next up would be intellectual abilities. This would include things like learning abilities, speed, and the child’s subject preferences. So, for example, the tendency of the child to excel in mathematic over artistic classes.”

            Once again, before Phil could even speak, Clint said “Phil.” Like it was the obvious answer. Hell, like they’d discussed it and chosen that answer beforehand. Together. This time, Phil couldn’t keep his frustration in.

            “Seriously, Clint?” This time, Clint wouldn’t look up from his hands. His mouth moved, like he was about to say something, but Betty spoke up before he could.

            “This is one of the reasons we advise parents to discuss these matters before the session. These questions can be difficult and require the parents to have a self-awareness that can be difficult to achieve.” Her smile looked more pinched than he’d seen it before. He noticed that her manicure from last week had chipped around the top. “I think it’d be best for the two of you to discuss this before we continue with the process. Please, feel free to use my office. I’ll be just outside, at reception, when you think you’re ready to continue.” At this, she stood up and promptly walked out of the room. The sound of the door clicking shut was unusually loud to Phil.

            He waited for a few moments for Clint to offer up some kind of explanation, some logical reasoning why he was solely choosing Phil’s traits for every possible option. The longer the silence dragged on, the more upset Phil got. He hated it when Clint shut him out, even a little, and a lack of communication was exactly where things were going wrong here. “Wanna tell me what’s going on?” He asked. Sometimes, all Clint needed was a nudge, to remember he could talk to Phil about anything.

            “Nothing’s goin’ on,” Clint mumbled. Clearly this was not one of those times.

            “Clint.” Phil said. And really, he was trying not to be frustrated, but this was important, and Clint was still not looking at him. Phil said his name again, this time using is Field Voice, the one Clint knew meant business. That, finally, got a reaction out of Clint. His eyes snapped up, meeting Phil’s.

            “I told you, nothing’s going on.” Clint said, a bit more defensive than before. “I’m just trying to do what’s best for our kid.” Phil felt his jaw drop at that, saw Clint let out his breath. He pulled his jaw back up, took a deep breath, because this conversation was looking to not be a fun one.

            “Exactly, _our_ kid, Clint. He’s supposed to be both of our kid, and you’re trying to make him some kind of carbon copy of me! I want to be able to look at our kid and see you in them just as much as myself. This is about us, starting a family together because we love each other. We’ll be doing what’s best for our kid by loving them as unconditionally as we love each other, no matter who they resemble. And I don’t like that you think somehow, being like you would be bad for our kid. You’re the best man I know Clint, you’ve got to know that by now.” And god, Phil was getting all kinds of emotional now, and when Clint looked up to meet his eyes, Phil thought he could see the glint of tears in his eyes too. When he spoke, his voice was rough.

            “I just… I guess I’m just afraid that by giving them my traits I’d be fucking them over, you know? Like, I had such a shitty childhood and I just didn’t want to doom them to the same fate. Which, before you say anything, I know we would never treat them like my parents treated me, but still. It’s just the principle of the thing, Phil. I… God, you know how much I love you Phil, I just…” Clint trailed off, pulling Phil’s hands into his own in a silent apology. And Phil got it, he understood that Clint came from a long background of adults that treated him like shit, something that he’d probably blamed himself for more than anyone else. It made sense that he thought not passing on his traits would be the best way to save their kid from the same fate. And Phil silently cursed himself, because while Clint had made leaps and bounds towards letting go of that ill-placed hatred, having to go through and weigh himself against Phil probably brought all of those feelings back to the surface. He pulled Clint’s hand up to his face and kissed his knuckles, before standing up and forcing Clint up with him by tugging his hand. Once standing, Phil let go of Clint’s hand in order to fully embrace his husband, hugging him tight and holding on for a long while. Eventually, he pulled back, giving Clint a peck on the lips before speaking.

            “Let’s go home. Forget about this for a while, okay? If we really want, maybe we can come back and finish the process someday, but not right now.” Clint looked confused and a little hurt, opened his mouth, probably to question if Phil didn’t want to have a child with him anymore. Phil spoke up again before he got the chance. “I think it would be a better idea to adopt for our first kid. I know we got so excited about the option of having one of our very own genes, we didn’t really talk about adoption, but I think it would be fitting, really. If you want?” He voiced the last part as a question, giving Clint a small squeeze where his hands were still clasped around well-defined shoulders, making it clear Clint still had a choice in what they did.

            “I think that’s… perfect, Phil. Yes, yes let’s do that,” Clint said, his smile small but quickly growing until he was grinning so widely Phil thought his face would split.

            “Okay,” Phil returned the smile with one of his own, sliding his hand down until it closed around Clint’s, and let them out of the office.

            They stopped at reception on their way out, Phil telling Betty to “hold the file for them,” that they were going to put the process of hold for the time being. Betty just smiled her tired, kind smile and gave them a wave off as they walked out the doors. Phil wondered how many couples had moments similar to the one they’d just had, thought it was comforting that when it came down to it they were just a normal couple with normal couple problems.

———

            A year later, and Phil and Clint were coming home for the first time with their new baby, Samantha Barton-Coulson. Clint smiled non-stop the entire first week she was with them, even through the late nights and early mornings and diaper changes and crying bouts. Phil thought maybe he’d never seen Clint this happy, thought maybe he himself had never felt as content as he did when he saw his husband and child together. And though they’d just begun their lives as parents, Phil thought the hard part was already done. If they could manage to remember these moments together, to continue to make memories as a family, that nothing to erase the pure and simple joy of the bubble they’d created for themselves.

**Author's Note:**

> Like I said in the beginning, this is just me getting my feet wet again. It's been a while since I've written fic, and this is my first fic in the MCU so I'm trying to just start small before jumping into something more complicated. That being said, feedback/prompts are a welcome part of the process! Thanks for reading, and if you want to come join me on tumblr, it's hawk-bye.tumblr.com !


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